fraise

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a ruff for the neck worn in the 16th century
  2. noun sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes

Etymology

From Middle English fraisen, from Old English frāsian (“to ask, try, tempt”), from Proto-Germanic *fraisōną (“to attempt, try”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to attempt, try; risk, peril”). Cognate with West Frisian freezje (“to fear”), Dutch vrezen (“to fear, dread, be afraid”), German freisen (“to put at risk, endanger, terrify”). Alternatively the Middle English fraisen was borrowed from Middle Dutch vreisen, vresen (“to be afraid; to endanger, threaten, frighten”), from Old Dutch *freisōn, *frēsōn, from the same Proto-West Germanic source above.

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